


Between

by BloomingMiracle (Luna264)



Series: Kingdom Hearts Wheelchair AU [10]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23794654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna264/pseuds/BloomingMiracle
Summary: (Post KH3+ReMind Canon!)Riku has a dream where he meets another (postcanon wheelchair au) version of himself. Neither of them is really sure how to feel about that
Series: Kingdom Hearts Wheelchair AU [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469156
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Between

Riku was seventeen years old, and he was pretty sure he was asleep. He remembered going to sleep, at least, and he didn’t remember waking up.

He was seated at a table, across from another version of himself. There were, unfortunately, no refreshments of any kind. The other him wore different clothes, and his visible scars were older, and in different places, but they seemed about the same age.

“One of us is going to have to acknowledge this eventually,” the other him said.

“This is a dream, right?” Riku said. “It has to be.”

“That’d add up, certainly,” the other him agreed amicably. “So, what have you been up to? Doesn’t look like you’re done with it all, on your end.”

“We still haven’t found Sora--”

“Your Sora’s missing?” His other self stood, fast enough to knock his chair away. “ _ Now _ ? What happened?”

And Riku told him-- the other him-- what had happened, with the battle between light and darkness at the keyblade graveyard, and Sora’s sacrifice.

His strange mirror listened, expression unreadable.

“And now he’s gone,” Riku finished.

“I see. We must be from different timelines.”

“Timelines? Like, worldlines?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Hm.”

There was a brief, contemplative silence.

The other him spoke. “So not even Yozora and Luxord have heard anything?”

“I’m sorry,” Riku said. “But  _ who _ ? And  _ Luxord _ ?”

His other self blinked, nonplussed. “Yozora. Do you… not know him?”

“No? Who is he?”

“My Nobody.”

Riku was suddenly very glad for the lack of refreshments. He would have choked on something, if anything had been there. “Your  _ what _ ?”

“Yeah.” His other self shrugged. “Apparently, when I got possessed and ended up in the Realm of Darkness, I got yeeted out of my body, but no one noticed at first because, you know, possession.”

“‘Yeeted’?”

“Sorry.” His other self rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Picked the word up from Elrena. My point is--”

“Who’s Elrena?”

Another pause.

“You… You don’t know  _ Elrena _ .”

“No, why should I?”

“You said it’s been a year since you fought the Organization.” His other self was pacing now. “My timelines Elrena was back  _ well _ before that time was up. Desperately looking for ass to kick, too.”

“Language,” Riku said.

“I’m a child soldier, I can swear as much as I want.”

“I feel like that’s not how that works.”

“It’s therapeutic.”

“Anyways.” Riku waved that topic aside. “What does Elrena have to do with the Organization?”

“Larxene’s original self,” his other self said. “From a thousand years ago.”

“There are implications there,” Riku said mildly.

“I didn’t think they were subtle enough to be considered implied.” The other Riku recollected his chair and sat back down, but he still seemed antsy. “At least you still know Kairi. I don’t know if I could handle it if  _ she _ was out of the picture. She must be tearing down the walls of reality in your timeline, huh?”

“She thinks the key to finding Sora might be in her heart somewhere,” Riku said. “She’s been having Ansem--”

“What?!” His other selfs veneer of calm shattered like glass. “Ansem?!?”

“Ansem the Wise--”

“Yeah, I  _ figured _ , but--”

“What’s wrong with Ansem the Wise?”

“ _ Oh _ ,” His other self said. “Did you mean  _ besides _ how he treats my best friends’ family? Or  _ other than _ the whole ‘human experimentation’ thing?”

“I--”

“Take me to  _ your _ timeline.” His other self was fuming, his entire body tense and his keyblade drawn. It was his original keyblade, Riku realized. The one that had broken in his own timeline. “It seems you have some garbage to dispose of.”

“No,” Riku said. “Not even if I knew how. If-- If this is what it takes to get Sora back--”

“You’d sacrifice Kairi.”

“It’s not a sacrifice,” Riku insisted. “She’ll wake up when--”

“How long has she been asleep?”

Another silence.

“A year,” Riku said.

“There are better ways to search,” his alternate said.

“And we’re trying  _ those, _ too.”

“There are better ways for  _ her _ to search.”

The two of them glared at each other for more than a minute.

His other self took a deep breath, apparently calming himself. “Ten seconds,” he muttered, more to himself than anything. “Count to ten.”

“You mentioned a Yozora earlier,” Riku said, figuring that changing the subject would help both of their tempers. “What made you think he might know where Sora is, even though the rest of us don’t?”

“Yozora lives in another reality.”

Riku choked on nothing. “You can’t just  _ drop _ that on people!”

“Well…” His other self shrugged. “ _ Technically _ , Yozora lives in a  _ few _ other realities layered on top of each other like a pastry.”

“Infinitely worse,” Riku said.

“Figured I’d ease you into it.”

“You call  _ that _ ‘easing’ me into it?”

“For me? Yeah.”

Riku sighed. “Fair enough. So. Yozora. How do  _ I _ go about getting in contact with him?”

The other him considered that for a moment. “In my timeline, he’s started dropping in after beating particularly tough enemies.”

“This is going to be another bombshell, isn’t it?”

“... Time goes faster in our reality compared to his?”

“ _ Lovely _ .”

“It might not be like that in your timeline, though. Merlin and Yen Sid are very insistent on the fact that timelines are completely distinct, even as similar as they can sometimes appear to be at points.”

“I want to wake up now,” Riku sighed. “This  _ sucks _ .”

“I could try and shock you awake with weirder aspects of my life.”

Riku paused. “It gets  _ weirder _ ?”

“My Sora ended up getting Xemnas to be his surrogate father figure.”

“ **_WHAT?!_ ** ”

“Yeah, that was a bit difficult for the rest of us to accept.” His alternate self leaned back, sighing a little. “For a while, after we’d finished up handling the whole  _ Luxu _ issue and before we’d managed to extract Xemnas’ heart from Terra’s body, the guy would take over and buy all the dad themed merchandise in a five mile radius.  _ Very _ inconvenient for Terra’s wallet.”

“Dude?”

“Hm?”

“Who’s Luxu?”

His other self blinked, at first processing  _ that _ particular difference in scenarios and then trying to figure out the explanation.

“You don’t have to tell me if it’s a long story,” Riku decided.

“Xigbar,” his other self said. “Luxu is Xigbar.”

“Oh.” Riku slumped in relief. “We took care of Xigbar with the rest of the Organization.”

“And the Foretellers?”

“Don’t-- Don’t talk about any more new people. I can’t take it, emotionally.”

There was a long silence.

It stretched out, filling the space around them and pulling itself into shapes as they sat.

“Your Sora’s at least got his chair with him, wherever he is, right?”

“What?”

“His chair,” the other him repeated. “You know, he has to get around  _ somehow _ .”

“Uh…” Riku said. “You mean like… walking?”

“Your Sora can  _ what _ ?”

~*~*~*~

Both Rikus woke up. It could arguably be considered simultaneous, if there was any way to compare the passage of time each of them experienced after they were no longer in that strange, dreaming room.

Both Rikus checked themselves with the front facing camera on their gumm(y/i) phones. Neither found anything peculiar about their faces.

One Riku went to a lab, to where a friend slept and called out for another. One went to a nearby bedroom, to where his own instance of those friends slept in a pile with some of the other members of their family. Both Rikus lay themselves down to sleep again, with a little bit more company.

**Author's Note:**

> I expected Riku to get along with Riku better, but Riku's just got such a /weird/ set of life experiences in comparison to Riku, you know?
> 
> None of the fics I'm reading have updated in days and I'm boooooorreeeeeed


End file.
